Remove MicrosoftSignedOnly and AllowStoreSignedBinaries protections from the Harden System Security executable to make the app compatible with Nvidia driver

[visualcookie]

Product

Harden System Security App

Does Your System Meet The Requirements?

• Yes, I acknowledge that I've read the requirements and my system meets them. 👍

Is your Windows Installation Genuine?

• Yes, I acknowledge that the installation media (such as ISO file) of the Windows OS I used was downloaded from the official Microsoft website and I didn't tamper or modify it. 💯

Have you used any other 3rd party tools to modify your Windows installation?

• If you used any other 3rd party tools to modify your Windows installation, they can be causing the problem you're experiencing.

Did You Read The Frequently Asked Questions?

• Yes, I've referred to the FAQs and my issue is not covered/explained in there.

Please Explain The Bug

When trying to open the app, it doesn't open at first (Window shows up and instantly closes). After I try hitting the button again, I'm greeted with an Bad Image error. I've already checked my drivers and even reinstalled the GPU driver and I still am not able to open the app.

Error Details

[HotCakeX]

Hi,
I think it's because:

1. The app supports exploit protections that prevent 3rd party and non-Microsoft signed items from being loaded into its process.
2. You've applied them in the Microsoft Defender category for the HardenSystemSecurity.exe.
3. The Nvidia software (background recorder etc.) is trying to hook to the app's process.

Either way, you should be able to solve it on your system by either uninstalling or modifying the software that is trying to hook to the process (recommended route) or remove the exploit protections from the Microsoft Defender's GUI or registry for the HardenSystemSecurity.exe (not recommended).

This looks like an old problem:

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/forums/game-ready-drivers/13/178989/nvspcap64dll-error/

https://www.partitionwizard.com/news/nvspcap64-dll-error.html

[HotCakeX]

Hi again @visualcookie
Please read my comment on this other issue: #913 (comment)

I will be removing the extra exploit protections in the next version (coming in a few days from now) so that the error won't be displayed anymore.)

Until then please enter these in an elevated PowerShell to fix the problem and then relaunch the app

set-processMitigation -Name hardensystemsecurity.exe -Disable AllowStoreSignedBinaries
set-processMitigation -Name hardensystemsecurity.exe -Disable MicrosoftSignedOnly

Thanks for reporting the problem, knowing multiple people were affected by this was very helpful.